In this edition of Free Grip, we chat with Blen of Noping in Olympia, WA.

Hey Blen! Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions. OK, let's start with some easy stuff, tell us a bit about yourself and where you grew up? 

Yeah man! I'm Blen, nice to talk to you. I grew up in a really small town called Rock City, Illinois. It had a population of 300 so there wasn't much to skate obviously with one gas station, one bar, and one Mecca for Methodists. Regardless, my crew and I had plenty of fun and I wouldn't trade my small town upbringing for anything.  My partner in the shop, Sam, grew up in Issaquah and I'm pretty sure he taught Gravette everything he knows about handrails and kickflips. Everyone knows the Garrbageman!

So Sam is to blame ahahaha. How did you get into skating? 

Easily. I quit football, started playing guitar and smoking weed and drinking beer haha. Probably the same as a lot of us. I kind of did everything as a kid, but skateboarding is the one that really stuck. I had a small tight group of friends into it that were down to kick me down enough stuff to have my own set-up. Shout out to the OG MILL CREW! My friend Andy's gramps had this abandoned building we took over and just kept building and partying whether it was 112 or -12. It was our home away from home. My brother who is 10 years older than me skated in the 80's and taught me how to build my first ramp when I was a wee lad, so shout out to him too! 

I love it! An abandon building we can take over sounds glorious right now in Tacoma. Alright, can you can you give us some details on the Olympia area for the people who aren’t familiar. What’s it like living there? Being a skater? Etc.

Simply put, I really love Olympia and it's really important to me to have the shop in the heart of downtown. Opening up the shop solidified me putting down roots here and making it home. It's a pretty small, but super rad skate scene. Everyone is nice and shows up when you need them too, whether it's a session, a fundraiser, or just to help on a project. I was drawn to the music scene (I'm punk as fuck) when I moved here too and just fell in love with all the nature that's right out the back door. It's also so easy to get in the car with some buds and not have to go too far to have an epic skate/camping trip. 

Downtown Olympia is really sick. It’s got a really rad old town feel but there’s actually people living there, doing shit, unlike some of Washingtons older towns. When and how did you guys decide to open up Noping?

I had the idea to start a little zine back in 2012 or 2013 with friends and get the community to contribute to help fundraise money for a ramp we were trying to build.  The homie Seth said we should call the zine "Noping" as a tribute to Yauger, Olympia's fine all noping park.  The OlyBowl was a big undertaking, and shout out to everyone who pitched in with their hands or wallets or property that it now rots on!  

I think I was drinking my morning coffee when Mike at NWS dropped a social media bombshell saying that the shop had to close. I didn't really think about it, and just turned around and made another post that was like, "Whelp, who wants to open a shop with me?"  I called my good buddies Graham (who eventually didn't want to go through with it) and Sam and we just started talking about how we were going to do it. I literally read "Small Business for Dummies" and took notes. Sam and I went to work for an art show production company and made enough of $3,000 to scrape an NHS order together back in May 2016. We didn't pay ourselves for years, but our town needed a shop because as every skater knows, or should know, your town's shop is more than just a business. Mike has always been really supportive of us and helped us along the way. Every other established shop in the area also reached out. Mad love to Black Market, 35th, Unity, Alchemy, and the whole lot of 'em.

Just fucking went for it, that’s dope. What’s been most challenging with running a shop here in the NW?

Mostly being broke. But we've been broke our whole lives. We're keeping it underwraps right now but we have a secret team of young skate-bots that we keep hidden in our back room that we are rigorously training for the Olympics to bring us back gold and Monster money. Hopefully that pays off in the end. But yeah, things are tough right now for skate shops, and really everyone. Just keeping our stick on the ice. Hopefully the sun comes out soon and enough people think we're still relevant. There should be a groundhog for that.

Monster money baby! But really though, the weather forecast actually says the sun is coming next week. So it can’t all be struggle, I would hope? What’s been something you’ve enjoyed about running the shop?

Growing up a little punk skater boy, I always dreamed of selling out and becoming a CEO of some sort. No, but for real, I really like being able to pay our artist friends for their work and putting it in the world. The likes of Reuen Story, Riley Kendig, Riley Kerr, Shane Donaldson, Max Oca, Riley Kerr again, Kyle Rollins, Craig Questions, Mike Craig, Casey Jones, Peter... Corey... Isis... and everyone else who is "totally working on something and will get it to us soon" have been clutch. I love seeing the groms out in the streets with our shop decks and stickers on their helmets. That will never get old.  For a while, Noping shirts were like totally cool in high school around here and that tripped me out. I didn't complain. It's corny, but the best part is working with a kid to pick out their first set-up and getting them stoked to skate.

Nah not corny at all, that shit is really sick. We all started somewhere. And what about managing folks who work at the shop, how has that been?

Oh, we don't really manage. We try our best to manage ourselves. The thing pretty much manages itself.  It's part of a community and we know when we fuck up and when we need to be held accountable and when to try better. Sam and I really couldn't do this without Evan and Albert, so they can get off the hook pretty easily as long as they let us off too. Things are light and fun. At least I hope. 

Hell yeah, sounds chill. Besides Noping, what are your favorite shops in the NW?

Zumiez probably, if you can call it a shop...  You gotta have a villian. 

Ayyyyye haha. Who's your favorite NW skaters right now?

My favorite skater for many years has been Lukas Miller, but I think he ditched the PNW for the Island Life.  Really all my favorite skaters are my friends.  It's so fun to skate with the homies and get stoked on them and have a good time. Sometimes I'll skate with Sam and be like "Oh, shit I forgot how good Sam is at this."

Agreed. Love to see my friends kill it. Any talented skater-artists out in your zone we should check out?

Yeah, definitely! But we're keeping them a secret in the backroom for now while they hone their skills so we can make money off of them.

Damn, well when you’re all rich pass me off their contact plzzzzz. How about Olympia skate photographers?

You mean instagramers?

I suppose that is generally synonymous most of the time these days... One thing Tacoma (where I live) and Olympia have in common, is we both have similar skateparks, in that they're older and not the greatest. I know in Tacoma, it makes us skate a bit differently than other regions with nice parks. How does the lack of new fancy skateparks affect the skate culture in Oly?

Yeah, that's a double-edged sword. Yauger is great if you like old, shitty parks (I do) where no one cares about what you do there. But the lack of a super-sweet fresh Grindline local also makes you want to travel and see what's around you while making memories with your friends. It also makes you and your buds pick up some 2x4s or 'crete and work on something cool together. For me, skating has always been in tandem with building. Building something to skate is almost as fun as skating it. 

It’s funny how we learn to love our old shitty parks. We have Foss, that’s our Yauger I suppose. Any advocacy work for new parks in the works? or new DIY stuff going on?

Yeah, but being the capital city, there are so many more bureaucrats and hoops to jump through than say, Wilkeson. There's always something going on, but not the kinds of things everyone needs to know about, including me.  Renegade DIY's typically die pretty quick here. The good buddy Taylor just finished his concrete drive-way park and it turned out really sick.  There's always ramps being torn down out of someone's yard and set up in someone else's garage. The age-old story of a grumpy landlord will persist as long as skaters keep fucking up property.

Who’s killing it in the Olympia area right now that we should know about?

Cops and Fetynal do most of the killing.

You’re not lying, unfortunately. Favorite local videos or parts people should watch? Old or new? 

Oh man, too many to name... Any Casey Heath (RIP) parts you can find. Any of Alex Cooper's older videos capture the Olympia vibe of that era. Ben DeShaw has shot for decades. Riley Kerr, Jeff Caffey: can't forget Sinkhole and Dog3. Logan Devlin (Seattle) had some great ones too.  

Huge fan of Alex Coopers videos. I’ll have to go dig into a few those. Any Noping videos in the works?

We're mostly into shooting commercials, but apparently something may be coming soon. I don't know, they left me out of it.

We’ll keep an eye out. What can we do as skaters to help Noping?

Lacquer it every once in a while.

Most creative responses in any Free Grip so far, I appreciate that shit haha. Final thoughts? Anything we missed?

Keep skateboarding fun and don't take anything too seriously.  Have as much fun in life as possible. Free Palestine!

You can follow Noping and Blen on Instagram, and make sure to go stop in an buy some of the best skateshop merch in the NW.